Making sure that a pet is safe and secure is a concern for all pet owners. Keeping a pet safe and secure often requires monitoring the pet's location to make sure that the pet has not become lost. In particular, a pet owner typically needs to monitor the location of his or her pet both when the pet is left unattended, such as when the owner goes to work, and the owner takes the pet to a public place, such as on a walk or to the park. To ensure the pet's safety, pet owners have traditionally restrained their pets by keeping them within a confined area or secured by a leash. But many pets still stray from home or run off in public places and become lost. In many cases, the pet owner may not become aware that the pet is missing for an extended period of time.
For example, most pet owners regularly leave their pets at home when they go to work and many other places where pets are not welcome. In some cases, the pet may be left unattended for many hours or even several days. If the pet strays from home and becomes lost while the owner is away, it may be many hours or even days before the pet owner learns that the pet has become lost. The longer the owner is unaware that their pet is missing, the harder it becomes to quickly locate and retrieve the pet. A long delay in locating the pet also increases risk of injury to the pet, which often translates into greater anxiety for the owner.
Monitoring the pet's location may also be a concern when the owner takes the pet to public places, such as on a walk or to the park, where the pet may become distracted and run off. Many dogs, for example, have chased cats, cars, or other dogs only to become temporarily lost, causing their owners to search until the pets are found. Again in this situation, the longer the owner is unaware that the pet is missing, the harder it becomes to locate and retrieve the pet.
Most devices currently available for locating lost pets involve passive devices, such as dog collars imprinted with the owner's name, address, and telephone number. These devices require the assistance of other individuals to locate and return the pet. Although these devices are helpful, they do not meet the pet owner's need for automatic notification when a pet strays from home or runs off in public.
Active pet collars have been developed to help notify passersby that a pet is lost. For example, some pet collars allow the pet owner to remotely activate a visual display located on the collar, such as an inflatable balloon inscribed with the message "LOST PET," flashing lights, or an electronic display. Although these systems may help to recover the pet once the owner becomes aware that the pet is missing, they do not alert the owner that the pet has become lost. As a result, the pet may be lost for an extended period before the owner realizes that the pet is lost and activates the visual display.
Other systems have been developed to help track lost or missing pets. For example, pet-tracking systems used in falconry and hunting use radio frequency transmitters that send homing signals to portable units held by the owners. While these systems are useful once the owner begins to track the lost pet, they do not notify the owner when the pet initially becomes lost. In addition, if the homing transmitter becomes active before the owner is ready the search for the pet, the battery in the homing transmitter may run down before the owner has a chance to search for the lost pet.
Automatic notification systems have been developed for imposing "house arrest" for convicted criminals. These systems use a transmitter "tag" or "collar" to continually send a signal to a monitoring station located within the criminal's home. When the signal is interrupted, the monitoring station automatically places a telephone call to the police station to notify the authorities that the prisoner has left the prescribed area. Although this type of automatic notification system could be used to monitor the location of a pet left unattended at home, it does not provide a mechanism for monitoring the location of the pet away from home, for example when taking the pet for a walk or to the park.
Alarm devices have also been developed for monitoring infant children in public places, such as shopping malls and fair grounds. A harness-type unit worn by the child continually transmits a signal to a hand-held monitoring station carried by the parent. When the child wanders out of range, the monitoring station sounds an alarm. The parent may then remotely activate an alarm located on the child unit to alert passersby that the child is lost. Lights attached to the child unit may also assist the parent in locating the child. Although these systems are helpful in tracking lost children, they do not anticipate the needs of pet owners, such as leaving pets unattended for hours or even several days.
Thus, there is a general need in the art for a pet monitoring system that is useful when the owner leaves the pet unattended, and is also useful when the owner takes the pet to a public place, such as to the park on a walk.